Tar Heel Tavern #10

Welcome to Tar Heel Tavern #10. Pretty much in the order they were received, here are this week's submissions and a few bonuses.

• Bora at Science and Politics was busting his buttons at his daughter's School Science Fair. I did my best to resist the urge to do more than minimum and let her do it all by herself. And she did. She built a seismograph out of a cardboard box, a paper cup, a marker, some pebbles (from her aquarium!), and a roll of paper.
  
  
• Ron at 2sides2ron wrote a progress report on an AIDS relief fundraiser and a call for participation by visual artists: A PATH to a Healthier World. In a previous post, I told you about my adventures in translating Spanish-language poetry. My experience with Señor Francisco Azuela of México and Bolívia has led me to the translation of his book, "The Ardent Word". ... PATH is now looking into the legal aspects of how to make this project work out for all of us involved.
  
  
• Ken from Colonel Corn's Camera sent along his two-part report on covering American Idol's Fantasia Barrino at a High Point Concert. Part I and Part II. After driving across five counties and taking two wrong turns, I rocketed into the church parking lot ... Next to where I parked, a family scribbled terms of endearment onto large sheets of poster board with magic markers...
  
  
• Alex at Peers & Peerless sent a humorous roast of one of his favorite English professors: Dr. Joe Mackall, In Memoriam. I do hope The Collegian finds another old person to fill his position, because I believe old people are the future, in that children were the future in 1985 and now all of them are getting old.
  
  
• Pam of Pam's House Blend sent a report on forced sterilizations carried on in North Carolina as late as 1974. The post covers the history of the problem, the comparison between this and the Tuskegee experiment, how this relates to today's Religious Right activities, and what NC is intending to do in terms of reparations to these women.
  
  
• Stewart, whose blog Viewfinder Blues is a particular favorite of mine, sent News Unit Time Travel, describing how his purportedly breakneck trip to a crime scene was slowed: The knuckles and blue hair gave her away, though both were barely visible above the Caddy’s front seat. Through her side view mirror I could see the stoic face of a family matriarch who was in no rush to get to the grocery store, or church, or quilting bee. Whatever her destination, she held three cars full of law enforcers and one grumpy news photog hostage as she poked along...
  

Then I decided to cruise ncblogs.com, our state blogroll, to find some more posts.

• Ogre at Pirate's Cove points us to a quiz: What Kind of English Do You Speak?
  
  
• Josh Staiger recently did an overview of blog publishing tools including Blogger, LiveJournal, Movable Type, Blosxom, Wordpress, Typo, and Xanga. He says For the love of god, please don't use Xanga. I'm not sure why my friends seem to have some unholy attraction to it. I had to write my own software just to read their blogs.
  
  
• Sally Greene at Greenspace has a brief report, with good links, on infrastructure, Broken highways, broken dreams: I couldn't tell you the plot of Walker Percy's Love in the Ruins, it's been so long. But the one image I remember from this dystopic, slightly hallucinatory novel, published in 1971 and set in the near future, is that of an interstate highway with grass growing up in it. ... Congested highways, overflowing sewers and corroding bridges are constant reminders of the looming crisis that jeopardizes our nation's prosperity and our quality of life.
  
  
• Jean at After Deadline wrote White House reporters asking tough questions: ...Bush's accepting and answering the handful of followups represents a serious change. Right after the election, he playfully but firmly gave the back of his hand to reporters trying to follow up on blustery answers. "I told you ... no followups" he'd say, shaking his finger...
  
  
• Waterfall at A sort of notebook has a post on butterflies - I've NEVER seen one like the one in her photo!
  
  
• ae at arse poetica wrote on her attendance at the March for Women's Lives: It felt like the world was peopled only with folks who didn't think there was anything funny 'bout peace, love, and understanding. I felt hopeful. Smiling women and men everywhere of all ages, colors, creeds. Lots of great t-shirts and stickers. Lots of mother/daughter pairs. Lots of best girlfriend pairs...
  
  
• Catch up with a lot of Greensboro bloggers with a recent link roundup at Chewie World Order.
  
  
• Norm at Espresso Sarcasm, who is having a Brain Cloud (you DID see Joe and the Volcano, didn't you? It really gives you faith in modern medicine as well as many other things) shares nicely in The last ten sparks floating across the synapses of my brain. The sparks include Jesus candles, Bush holding hands with the Saudi crown prince, Rubbernecking at accidents or traffic stops, and "I'd like to meet the cow that donated the leather for that chair."
  
  
• Iddybud wrote Jim Wallis on the Hijacking of Christianity (with links)
  
  
• I did a Lorax Hall of Shame post on Appolonia, a beautiful and undisturbed archeological site which is about to be bisected by a highway to take tourists to the beach faster.
  
  
• Finally First Year Teacher has her 30th birthday today! I remember my mother's 30th birthday. Someone gave her a shirt that said "30 and Still Frisky". I remember that she was kind of sad during that birthday and that it was a really big deal but I didn't understand why. ... Now I do. On Sunday I will turn 30 myself. ... I guess I have always felt like I would have everything together by then... I wouldn't worry what people thought of me, I would fully understand why I am who I am and why I do what I do. I would just relax, I think I imagined. Like the work of figuring out who I was would be over.
  
  HAHAHA! We should go over there, wish her a happy birthday, and tell her that twenty years from now, she'll be just as perplexed as she is today.

Next week's Tarheel Tavern hosted by Circadiana. Hope to see you there!

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